Mr. George Walker
Head of Strategic Development
Aon Re, Australia
Level 29, 201 Kent Street
Sydney, NSW 2000
AUSTRALIA

Dr George Walker is Head of Strategic Development at Aon Re Australia. Born and educated in New Zealand, he is a civil engineer by profession, and in 1966 was awarded the first PhD in earthquake engineering by a New Zealand University. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers Australia, the Australian Insitute of Building, and the Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand. Dr Walker joined Aon Re Australia (then Alexander Howden) in 1994 following a distinguished research career as Associate Professor in Civil Engineering at James Cook University of North Queensland (21 years) and as Assistant Chief of the Division of Building Construction and Engineering at CSIRO, Australia's major government research organisation (5 years). Dr Walker's principal research interests have been in the fields of wind and earthquake engineering, particularly in relation to the effects on housing, and the development of appropriate standards to mitigate damage losses. During the past twenty years he has become increasingly involved with the catastrophe insurance and reinsurance industries as an adviser and consultant in respect of damage risk assessment and damage mitigation of housing and low rise buildings. Areas of this activity have included Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Guam, Taiwan, Philippines and Japan.